Hello Again BraveHeart Women! I hope you're making it a great day.

Today I thought I'd write about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because it's another great way to get more traffic to your website.

You want your site to show up in the natural results on the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN, which will result in bringing quality traffic to your site at no cost!

I say "natural" results because you can also get on the first page of the top search engines through Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC). With PPC you can get on the first page today, depending on the competition for the keywords. With SEO it takes some time, but it can happen fast if you work at it.

As mentioned in my previous post about getting more traffic to your website, building one way back links to your site from a variety of Web 2.0 methods will gain "attention and respect" from search engines.

Keywords play a big factor in this and I started talking about that in my last post about Domain Names. I talked about "drilling down" to find great "narrow" or "niche" keywords so you'd have a better chance to rank for them.

Competition for keywords is what you need to be aware of when choosing yours. Google even helps in this area by providing a keyword tool. It's extremely helpful and it's free. Try it out here >>

Type in a broad match keyword, type the letters in the "capcha" field and peruse the results that Google serves you.

There will be a list of suggested keywords, the competition for them, and the search volume. What you're looking for, obviously, are keywords with lower competition and a good amount of search volume (people using the keywords to search for something they want).

The keywords you decide to target then need to be used on your web pages in a number of ways.

1. The keywords and derivatives need to be in the copy on your page. Be sure to use them in the first paragraph and in the headlines and subheads. Use some in bullet points, some bolded, some underlined. These things add "weight" to the keyword.

2. Keywords should be used as anchor text, meaning they are hyperlinked to go to another page or site.

3. Meta tags: While major search engines don't pay attention to Meta Tag Keywords, smaller search engines still do in many cases. However, keywords in the title of your page and in the description is an excellent strategy. For instance Google uses your Meta tag title and description in the search results! Make it read like an ad because it is!

4. Alt tags: While you don't ever want to "stuff keywords" into your pages, when appropriate you can add a keyword or two in the image alt tags.

I'll talk more about meta tags in a later post but if you have any questions, leave a comment below and I'll address it then.

I hope this helps get you thinking about how to optimize your site for search engines, and increase your traffic to your site.

Until next time!

Deb